Acer Liquid Z5 looks to Asian & LatAm markets

TAIPEI -- Taiwanese computer maker Acer Inc. said yesterday that its Liquid Z5 smartphone is entering more markets in Southeast Asia and Latin America, as part of its efforts to attract entry-level consumers in emerging markets.

The Liquid Z5 hit store shelves in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Chile in mid January and will go on sale in Indonesia and Singapore in early March, before entering Brazil and Mexico, Acer said in an emailed statement.

The Z5 sports a MediaTek MT6572 dual-core 1.3GHz processor, a 5-inch display, a 5-megapixel camera, 1GB internal memory and a battery capacity of 2,000Ah. It is sold in Taiwan through Chunghwa Telecom Co. at NT$6,990 (US$231).

The Z5 is one of four Acer products that have won the prestigious 2014 iF product design awards, along with its TravelMate P645 notebook, K137 portable projector and Aspire R7 hybrid laptop tablet.

Acer CEO Jason Chen said in late January that his company is maintaining its smartphone shipment target of 5 million units for 2014, more than triple its estimated 1 million to 1.5 million units for 2013.